Re: PostScript printing Latin-N (with N != 1)

[Reiner Steib]

On Fri, Jan 13 2006, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> From: Reiner Steib <reinersteib+gmane@imap.cc>
[...]
>> I meant two different buffers.  One containing _only_ Latin-1, the
>> other _only_ Latin-9 characters.
>
> In that case, it might be something in how you set up the ps-mule
> database.  Perhaps it doesn't support more than one Latin-n set, I
> never tried to do something like that myself, I only ever set it for a
> single Latin character set.

I just tried what Handa suggested.  (See the URL I gave.)

>> >> Printing the same file (with the Euro) encoded in UTF-8 fails with:
>> >> "bdf-read-font-info: BDF file etl24-unicode.bdf doesn't exist"
>> >
>> > Well, it's quite clear what it tells you, yes?
>> 
>> Sure, but I couldn't find this file neither in SuSE 9.2 or 10.0 nor on
>> a Debian GNU/Linux box.  Unless most of the major GNU/Linux
>> distributions include the required BDF fonts, using `bdf-font' is not
>> a feasible solution for end users.
>
> Here again you are too eager to generalize, I think: a single font is
> missing, and already this is ``not a feasible solution''.  Given that
> the current Emacs doesn't even support Unicode reasonably enough,

Do you mean Emacs 21 or Emacs 22?

> isn't it a tad too much to reject a package that covers most other
> character sets?

Eli, I don't reject the package.  I don't have any reason not to trust
you when you say that it works for most languages.  I don't want to
generalize, I'm only saying that it doesn't work for me in the very
specific test cases that I have tried.

Personally, I don't mind if I get a hollow square instead or I'll use
enscript or something else if I really want to see glyph.  I'm
thinking of users who will (once Emacs 22 is released) ask questions
like "How do I print text files containing the €uro sign in Emacs?".
Telling the user to install the "intlfonts-bdf" package an set a few
is okay.  But I can't find "etl24-unicode.bdf" (nor a BDF font for
Latin-9) neither in GNU/Linux distributions nor with Google.  IMHO,
most user would give up already if it doesn't work out-of-the-box.  Or
they will go for workaround like htmlize.el + printing from the
browser.

>> >> Printing the Thai example text from HELLO produces a PS file, but gs
>> >> can't display the PS file (as in my previous mail):
>> >
>> > So gs also has problems, or so it seems.
>> 
>> Possible.  Or the created PS file is invalid.
>
> I have a PostScript printer.  If you really want to know which one of
> these possibilities is true, send me the PS file and I will look.

Sending it to a HP 4100 PostScript Printer (with "lpr -oraw") results
in no output on the printer (the display switches to "Processing job"
for a moment).  Printing a simple plain text with "lpr -oraw" works.

Here is the text file including the setup starting from "emacs -Q":
http://theotp1.physik.uni-ulm.de/~ste/comp/emacs/misc/Thai-From-HELLO.gz
Here's the PostScript file:
http://theotp1.physik.uni-ulm.de/~ste/comp/emacs/misc/ps-mule-bdf-Thai-From-HELLO.ps.gz
(gzipped to avoid possible corruption)

(I can also send them to you by mail if you don't have web access.)

Bye, Reiner.
-- 
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      (o o)
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